Coming Home To You
by cress26
Summary: Dealing with emotions at Christmas time would always be hard for Red, but this year he had something new to help him deal with the pain, his Lizzie.
1. Chapter 1

Coming Home To You

Notes: Sequel to: Never Let you Go.

Written for Heather Peters in the Lunchbox group's hiatus gift exchange. This is the first chapter, I hope you enjoy!

Summary: Dealing with emotions at Christmas time would always be hard for Red, but this year he had something new to help him deal with the pain, his Lizzie.

The only sounds piercing though the silence of the night were the crunch of Red's shoes on the snow, the icy whisper of the wind, and his own breathing. He loathed this weather with a passion. Turning up his collar, he sank deeper into his coat in an unsuccessful attempt to hide from the cold and the unwelcomed images which threatened to crush down on him unasked. Would this ever fade? Would there ever come a time when he wasn't reminded? When he didn't remember?

He crossed the parking lot and nodded to the night porter when he entered the entrance hall of the apartment complex right at Quantico Creek. The building was heavily secured with surveillance and manpower, most of them Red's own associates. Red owned the entire building but he let Liz believe it was just the apartment on the fourth floor. It was the apartment Red had bought for them a couple of weeks ago, after they had come together.

Liz had started her new assignment at the FBI, teaching at Quantico, and the apartment was right in the neighborhood. She had been welcomed back with a lot more warmth than she had imagined and it had helped a great deal in acclimating faster. Her relationship with Red was still very raw and new, though, as he'd been away on "business trips" most of the time, but the sooner he could unwind his affairs the sooner he could stay with her entirely.

He exited the elevator and opened the door to their apartment. He was home early and he intended to surprise Liz, who wouldn't be expecting him for another few days. It was late, after midnight, and Liz was probably already asleep. As quietly as possible, he hung up his coat in the wardrobe without turning on the lights, and then he suddenly felt something rubbing against his legs and purring.

"Meow."

Surprised, he looked down. The street lights illuminated the corridor and he could make out a small shadow that pressed itself against his legs all over again.

"Spoone! What are you doing here?"

He bent down to scratch the cat behind its ears and the purring grew louder. Giving a soft, satisfied purr-grunt before flopping onto its back and curling its paws around his hands, Spoone tried to play with him. It was being nice and keeping its claws in, and Red laughed in a low voice and felt an odd sense of contentment.

"I've missed you too, you little rascal."

Spoone then got up, turned, and ran ahead to the living room, but stopped at the door to look back at Red as if beckoning him to follow.

Red followed him slowly and switched on the lights in the living room. Spoone jumped up the new scratching post, curled up in the carpeted bed on top, and watched him closely.

Stunned, Red looked around. Apparently Liz had raided his Bethesda apartment and had not only brought Spoone over to this new apartment, but also a shelf holding his favorite books, the old floor lamp, and the record player. His photographs decorated the mantelpiece and his paintings the walls. It looked like Donald had also kept his promise to release Liz's belongings from evidence since the Sorrento music box was placed on a side table and the white stuffed bunny resided on the couch.

What startled him the most though, was the fact that Liz had finished decorating the living room for Christmas already. It was still another week till Christmas, but she had bought a tree, decorated it with bright, beautiful, and colorful ornaments and lights. At the top of the tree sat a glowing angel and piled under the tree were many presents, all wrapped with care. Stockings were hung by the chimney, candles arranged everywhere. The smell of the fir needles, apples, cinnamon, and cookies filled the room.

Triggered by the mere thoughts of Christmas, Red readied himself for fresh surges of horror; for the flashes of blood and destruction. He braced himself for the nausea that came with the memory of loss and pain, but then he was more than a little taken aback by how these emotions failed to appear in their usual force and fierceness this time.

After collecting himself, he looked at Spoone, who immediately rolled onto its back and drew up its paws, purring like a sewing machine. Red scratched Spoone's belly and fought the lump in his throat. She'd clearly done all this for him. Her thoughtfulness and the sentiment of making this a home for him by bringing over his belongings touched him deeply and settled over him like a healing blanket. The pure thought of her kept his inner demons at bay and chased away the images of the dreadful Christmas twenty-seven years ago. Tears welled up in his eyes when he looked around once more, overwhelmed by his love and need for this woman.

#####

Red found Liz sleeping on his side of the bed, curled up around his pillow. She sighed and pressed herself deeper into it unconsciously; probably, hopefully, dreaming of holding him against her. His heart swelled and ached at the sight of her, and he longed to hold and to feel her too.

He silently dressed down to his boxer shorts and carefully moved into the bed, spooning behind her, pressing himself gently against her warm back. When he wrapped his arm protectively over her hip and belly and buried his nose into the soft valley of her neck to breathe her in, she woke up.

She immediately sensed his presence behind her, his smell and his touch so unique and recognizable.

"Red."

"Mmm."

He placed feather-light kisses along her throat, lingering there just to feel her. She closed her eyes at the sensation of his hot breath on her bare skin, but reluctantly pulled away from him and turned around to face him when his body wouldn't stop its trembling.

"Red, are you alright?"

Worried, she turned again to switch on the bedside lamp to be able to see him clearly. Pulling the covers off him, she inspected his torso.

"Are you sick? Injured? Hurt?"

Her troubled face made his heart clench for her again. He couldn't remember when last someone had cared about him this way: so much.

"I'm fine, sweetheart. I'm perfectly fine. Just a little overwhelmed to have you in my arms again."

She sighed in relief and snuggled back against him straightaway, holding him tight. It was true, their newly formed intimacy and closeness was still breathtaking and felt as thrilling as the first time.

"Did you found the man in Johannesburg? The one who put the bounty on your head?"

"Yes, and that threat is gone, Lizzie. That's why I'm back early."

"How long can you stay?"

"A little longer this time."

She looked at him, her expression still concerned, but then it softened all at once.

"I'm glad… I've missed you, Red. I've missed you so much…"

She closed her eyes in despair, actually fighting tears.

"I know I shouldn't worry so much about you when you're gone, but I love you and I don't want to lose you. I'm just always so afraid now that I finally have you. I'm sorry…"

He sighed and kissed her forehead.

"Lizzie, look at me… please…"

The intense look she was presented with when she finally looked up nearly melted her insides. He brought his face closer to hers as her breath hitched.

"I've missed you too; you wouldn't believe how much, sweetheart. I promise I'll always come back to you. Always. I'm just so sorry you have to put your life on hold for me like that. That you have to wait for me to end and seal my criminal path. You deserve so much more and so much better."

"Oh, stop this same old story, Reddington! I thought we were past this."

She playfully slapped him and sniffled.

"When will you accept–"

Red didn't give her time to finish her sentence; to let her scold him. He pulled her face in for a kiss and their lips finally met, greeting each other with the warmth and affection only lovers shared. They kissed each other for a long time. His hands captured her waist while her fingers were busy playing with his chest hair.

He rolled onto his back then, tugging her along and settled her on top of him. He needed her closer; needed to feel more of her. They clung to each other for dear life, no one ready to lose hold of the other any time soon.

"Thank you for bringing Spoone to this place and some of my belongings. It means a lot."

"I want you to feel safe, connected, and comfortable here, and not only because of me."

"It makes me very happy, Lizzie."

He squeezed his arms around her even more closely, if that was at all possible.

"And how's your teaching going?"

"It's fun. My students listen to me closely on everything we have on William Bradford Bishop, Jr., Jason Derek Brown, and even Semion Mogilevich. But when it comes to Raymond Reddington, they say I'm terribly biased. Now, why would they say that?"

Liz laughed wholeheartedly and Red chuckled with her.

"Because you're in love with him"

"Mmm, am I?"

Liz searched his mouth for another kiss and started a seductive exploration, testing and searching for just the right angle to fit more fully against him. He moved his lips against hers in return, matching the gentle suction and caress of her mouth with his own. Sparks shot through their veins when the kiss grew more heated and hungry, building a greater need in both of them.

When she withdrew, he met her gaze. Her eyes smoky with desire and dark with passion.

She wanted all of him.

He wanted all of her.

Right now.

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

They kissed and touched, making each other crazy with need, hot with lust, and eager to feel the other. Her hands were inside his boxer shorts and around him, stroking. In seconds he swelled and grew; he was rock hard, fully engorged and ready. His gasps made her feel powerful, alive. His hand dipped into her panties at the same time, fingers brushing along her opening.

"God, you're so wet for me. Do you have any idea how badly I want to taste you right now?"

Her hips pushed against the hand cupping her sex.

"Show me! We have all night. I won't have classes tomorrow."

At her enthusiastic reply, he gripped her hip and flipped her over and under him. He trailed kisses down her throat and, down to her bare breasts, her nipples hardening against his playful tongue. Traveling down even further, his tongue dipped into her navel, eliciting a giggle from Liz. He nibbled and licked across the band of her panties then, leaving a wet trail along her skin. Inhaling deeply, he could smell her musky arousal and it instantly multiplied his ache for her. Liz squirmed beneath his teasing tongue, yearning to feel him where she needed him most.

Turning his head slightly, his lips kissed over to her hips and down one leg, while his fingers pulled her panties down with him to remove them. He then bit lightly into her big toe just to hear her giggle again. Growing impatient with him, she reached down and tugged at his boxer shorts to remove them as well, and then captured his erection with her fingers. He scooted closer automatically, aligning his abdomen with her head, and bringing his head in turn closer to her musky, heady scents.

Facing each other, they lay on their sides, intending to pleasure each other at the same time in the sixty-nine position. Liz straightened one leg while lifting the other up, her knee toward her chest, to give him better access. He helped her by hooking her top leg over him

His tongue brushed through her wetness, his fingers gently spreading her lips open. His tongue pressed deeper inside, lapped up the bursts of her sweet slickness, and he swiped his tongue over and around her clit.

At the same moment, she wrapped her fingers around his shaft and bent him towards her mouth, taking as much inside as she could with the odd angle. Gently biting and sucking his flesh, she used her fingers to toy with his balls. She ran her tongue around the ridge and the fat tip, lapping up the pre-cum which was flowing with abundance now. He groaned and exhaled his hot breath over her wet skin. Hearing Red's harshly ragged breaths, she sucked his quaking length as far into her throat as possible, drawing it hard between her teeth and lips, feeling the blood beating through its blue-veined length.

He nipped, licked and sucked her with vigor, struggling heavily not to give in into his own enjoyment. Helplessly and desperately, he slid a finger inside her, searching for her g-spot and she moaned when he put just the right pressure against it. The intended pleasure was so intense that she couldn't concentrate anymore and let go of him from her mouth.

"Red, I can't …"

"Shhh …You taste so good, let me finish you."

The vibrations from his words sent her bucking against his mouth. Red returned his lips back to her, gripping her lovely behind, holding her in place as he intensified his ministrations. Liz ground herself shamelessly into his face, writhing in ecstasy, and he felt her walls contract around his finger when she came. She cried out his name, shivered in delight, and panted for air.

The powerful need for him, however, wasn't satisfied. She wanted to feel him again, all of him, preferably deep inside. So she turned back around and slid up his body, pushing his shoulders flat against the bed. She positioned herself on top of him and, lined him up to her dripping wet opening, before he could do anything else.

"I need to come again and I want you to be inside me when I do."

Thrusting her hips downward, she slowly pressed his length inside her. He was huge, stretching and filling her so completely…, so good. This was the sensation she'd been craving every minute of every day since he'd been gone.

He shuddered and his eyelids fluttered closed at her tightness and the hot grip of her wrapped around him.

"I've missed this. I've missed you, Lizzie."

He traced the delicate outline of her mouth with a fingertip when he opened his eyes again and her answering smile was pure sunshine.

Liz placed her palms on his chest and moved slowly, gazing into his eyes. She slid upwards, then slowly descended again, establishing a steady rhythm and making sure to hit the right spots. Her satiny walls tugged and sucked at his long, thick shaft, the friction and stretch so pleasurable that, she felt herself hurtling effortlessly towards another orgasm in no time.

"God Red, why do you always feel so good?"

"Because you deserve all the pleasure in the world, love."

Squeezing him hard, her inner walls gripped and tightened around his large and thick member. She cried out and moaned loudly, her face contorted in passion as her body bucked and shuddered; as the hot, orgasmic spasms ripping through her. Watching Liz's intense release was violently arousing and he kept pushing into her through every second of it from below. He didn't come with her, though. His staying power was better than that; besides, he wasn't ready to stop yet. She just felt too good for him to stop this now.

Liz collapsed against him; for long minutes she lay breathless and trembling in his arms. He remained rigid and motionless inside her, listening to her breathy sighs of content.

"You didn't come."

"There's still plenty of time."

He caressed her face with his fingertips and played with strands of her hair.

"But don't you want … don't you need it too?"

"More than anything else in the world, sweetheart."

"Then take me, Red. Just take me."

He growled and flipped her around without losing his place in her and kissed her deeply. Liz spread her legs wide for him and he settled more firmly against her. He took her hands, intertwined his fingers with hers, and started to ease in and out of her slowly. Bending his head, he suckled a swollen nipple and increased the pace and the depth of his thrusts continuously. Liz rocked her hips and did her best to work the muscles around his deep, pounding erection as he ravished her with progressive force.

He drove into her faster and faster. They no longer kissed; their mouths parted to gasp and pant their pleasure.

"Harder, Red!"

He couldn't hold on forever and his body rippled with the closeness of his ejaculation as he kept pounding into her relentlessly. In a desperate attempt to push her along over the edge with him, he brought his hands between their bodies, searching for her clit. It took him just a few targeted strokes and Liz cried out, clamping around him so strongly that they both peaked simultaneously. Red grunted and trembled from head to foot as he splattered and spurted his semen deep into her.

He collapsed down beside her and Liz moaned softly as he withdrew his now soft length from inside her. He shifted her gently until she was on her side with him curled around her back; his favorite position to hold her and to fall asleep in. And he knew he would sleep. Liz had managed to calm his mind and soothe whatever demons had held him in their grip.

"I love you, Lizzie."

"I love you too, Red."

He listened to her breathing even out and within minutes they both slept.

Red woke up a few hours later and disentangled himself carefully from Liz without waking her. He put his boxer shorts back on and went to the bathroom. When he passed the living room on the way back he stopped, then went inside. Spoone was fast asleep and snoring peacefully on the scratching post's rest. Red looked at the Christmas tree again, then went over and plugged in the lights and let his emotions wash over him once more.

Liz found him gaping at the tree, completely lost in thoughts. His posture reflected his inner tumult; he was tensed and clearly pained, and actually flinched away when Liz cautiously wrapped her arms around him from behind. It was like a déjà vu, like the night in the cottage at the North Sea, when he was as troubled and hurt as he seemed to be now.

"I don't know what happened to you on Christmas all those years ago, but judging by the simple fact that you were always far gone every year for Christmas since I knew you, it must have been something devastating. I can only assume it involved the Cabal, your family, and probably even me."

"Lizzie…"

"No, Red, it's fine. You don't have to say anything."

He closed his eyes and whispered.

"But I want to."

He took her hands and placed them firmly onto his chest, wrapping her arms even tighter around him, closing his own hands over them and not didn't letting go.

"I used to run every year, sitting out every December on some sunny island, pretending the holidays weren't happening. That way I could avoid all those painful memories – and it worked well most of the time. I had already planned the trip for this year…, however, now that I'm with you, for the first time in all these years, I'd like to stay. I won't run from the memories any longer. I want to face my demons, deal with them, and overcome them."

He finally turned around to face her and gathered her into his arms. She rested her head on his shoulder and held on to him tightly.

"Would it help to create new, good memories? Replace them with your dreadful ones?

She looked up at him with a questioning look, and then nodded towards the presents under the tree.

"See the small present in the golden wrapping paper? Open it!"

Tentatively, he disengaged himself from her and bent down to pick up the present. He examined it closely and curiously.

"Open it, please. I know it's not Christmas yet, but I think it's the right time for it now."

Red carefully ripped away the wrapping paper, revealing a small black jewelry box. He opened the lid and was presented with two sleek sterling silver rings, the smaller one holding five little sapphires along its shank, shining as blue and vibrant as Liz' eyes.

The moment he fully grasped the meaning of the gift, Liz dropped down on one knee, took his hand in hers, and looked up at him.

"I'm sorry that protecting my life caused havoc in yours for so many years. I'd like to take away all your pain and spend the rest of my life making sure you're the happiest man in this world. I love you Raymond Reddington …

"Will you marry me? Be my husband, my soulmate, my best friend and lover? Grow old with me?"

He stared down at her in wonder and his heart raced in his chest. The tree's lights highlighted her beautiful features. The magnitude of her love for him was so clear, so unmistakable and so palpable in her eyes that, it crashed the walls of the cave he'd built inside like an earthquake, shattered the holding cell of his dark soul like a hurricane, and enclosed the hideous monster inside in its brightness and warmth.

Tears flowed down his face as if flood gates had been opened. He dropped down to his knees along with her, wrapping his arms around her, all the while whispering "Yes, yes I'll marry you."

It took them a long time to release each other. Tears ran down Liz's cheeks as well when Red took the box, then her hand, and gently placed her ring on her finger. Liz in turn took Red's hand and placed his ring on his finger, sealing the deal. They stared into each other's eyes, both so deeply in love.

He picked her up and carried her back into the bedroom to make love to her again till the early morning hours, eventually falling into a needed, blissful sleep.

Spoone jumped into bed with his humans, curled up at the bottom end and watched over them, his mouth seeming to curve upwards in a literal smile.

Merry Christmas!

The End.


End file.
